Dashcam / Sentry: How they work and what they do (and dont) do

[Gauss Guzzler]

Yep, and you can edit the menu bar to permanently display the dashcam icon to make this process easier.

 

[metroplex]

Yep, and you can edit the menu bar to permanently display the dashcam icon to make this process easier.

So I added the Dashcam icon to the bottom menu bar (along with wipers, HVAC, etc...) but when I tap that, it just goes to the Dashcam video footage. I don't see an option to save.

Now if I tap the Car icon in the lower left corner and tap the Dashcam "Recording" button, it will show that I saved the footage (and hear an audible confirmation sound).
How do I add the Recording button to the bottom menu or have an easy way of saving the footage without going 1-2 layers deep?

 

[Gauss Guzzler]

The button launches the viewer when the car is in park or saves recent footage when the car is in gear.

 

[metroplex]

The button launches the viewer when the car is in park or saves recent footage when the car is in gear.

Thank you, your explanation was a lot simpler.
I had to go back into the owner's manual and re-read the section on the dashcam several times before I caught how if you tap it while driving, it will save the footage.

Model 3 Owner's Manual | Tesla

Learn about the features you can use to record videos when driving.

www.tesla.com

 

[Happy Hippo]

I just looked at the 23 MY manual and it states that Sentry Mode records. Could this be new?
"When enabled, Sentry Mode is idle, ready to sound the alarm and save a recording of the security event if triggered. See Viewing Video Recordings for information on viewing footage."

Model Y Owner's Manual | Tesla

Learn about the features you can use to monitor the security of your vehicle when parked.

www.tesla.com

 

[Knightshade]

I just looked at the 23 MY manual and it states that Sentry Mode records.

No, it does not.

Could this be new?
"When enabled, Sentry Mode is idle, ready to sound the alarm and save a recording of the security event if triggered.

SAVE a recording. Not create a recording.

It saves the 10 minute recording that already exists, because dashcam recorded it, to the SENTRY folder rather than leaving it the 1 hour recent loop that dashcam will overwrite.

 

[Happy Hippo]

When enabled, your vehicle's cameras and sensors (if equipped) remain powered on and ready to record suspicious activity around your vehicle when Model Y is locked and in Park. Ready to record meaning it does record. that is all I needed to know!

 

[Knightshade]

When enabled, your vehicle's cameras and sensors (if equipped) remain powered on and ready to record suspicious activity around your vehicle when Model Y is locked and in Park. Ready to record meaning it does record. that is all I needed to know!

Sadly you don't appear to know it correctly.

If the car did not start recording until it saw suspicious activity it would not be saving a 10 minute clip, 8-9 minutes of which happened before the suspicious activity

Which is the actual thing it does. Saves the last 10 minutes of footage dashcam recorded to the sentry folder. How else COULD it work?

Unless you think Tesla has time travel technology in their cameras.... is.... is that what you think?

Because if not your reading and understanding are grossly misinformed.

 

[Happy Hippo]

Sadly you don't appear to know it correctly.

If the car did not start recording until it saw suspicious activity it would not be saving a 10 minute clip, 8-9 minutes of which happened before the suspicious activity

Which is the actual thing it does. Saves the last 10 minutes of footage dashcam recorded to the sentry folder. How else COULD it work?

Unless you think Tesla has time travel technology in their cameras.... is.... is that what you think?

Because if not your reading and understanding are grossly misinformed.

No I don't know it correctly. Do you really think someone would think of time travel technology? that is rude. My first EV and reading the manual literally. I will ask the service team tomorrow since they are experts.

 

[Knightshade]

No I don't know it correctly. Do you really think someone would think of time travel technology? that is rude. My first EV and reading the manual literally. I will ask the service team tomorrow since they are experts.

They're exactly as expert as the folks who've already given you the answer (possibly less so, as there's plenty of examples of them giving nonsense answers to a myriad of questions)


It works exactly as explained in the first post of this thread.

Sentry does not "record" anything when triggered.

How could it since the 'recordings' that show in the sentry folder all begin 8-9 minutes in the past from the trigger event?

Instead, again as explained way back in post #1, dashcam is always recording when:
The car is awake (and a car with sentry mode active is always awake)
and
There's a valid USB storage device to record to.

Sentry has nothing to do with recording video-- which is why it works fine even without any storage attached.

But it will move the previous 10 minutes of dashcam recording to the sentry folder when triggered if such footage is available- and that footage is then saved from being overwritten after an hour as dashcam does by default to things NOT moved out of its own folder.

 

[Amanfromconn]

You can also manually save DashCam footage by using Voice Command, saying, "Record Video"...

I j ust use voice command "save video" works everytime.

 

[Amanfromconn]

So I added the Dashcam icon to the bottom menu bar (along with wipers, HVAC, etc...) but when I tap that, it just goes to the Dashcam video footage. I don't see an option to save.

Now if I tap the Car icon in the lower left corner and tap the Dashcam "Recording" button, it will show that I saved the footage (and hear an audible confirmation sound).
How do I add the Recording button to the bottom menu or have an easy way of saving the footage without going 1-2 layers deep?

Just use voice command " save video"

 

[beachsideev]

you can also configure one of the scroll wheel buttons to save the video. That's what I do.

But I really wish it just worked like every other dashcam and filled up the drive and overwrote the older stuff. the 1 hour thing is usually pointless, ime.

 

[metroplex]

you can also configure one of the scroll wheel buttons to save the video. That's what I do.

But I really wish it just worked like every other dashcam and filled up the drive and overwrote the older stuff. the 1 hour thing is usually pointless, ime.

I agree. It should just keep recording and filling up, then overwrite the old stuff. I tried using the wheel button but every time I went to reboot the computer it'd save the video. I end up just keeping it in my quick access bar on the main screen.

 

[fysmd]

You can bind a long press of the left wheel button to save video (and fart if you like).

 

[dusty22]

I saved a dashcam clip today but part of it was cut out. As I entered a left turn lane, a car proceeding in the opposite direction suddenly moves left and almost hits my car head on. I made a small evasive maneuver to the right and avoided a collision. I remembered to hit the camera button a minute later and saved a clip. Later, when I looked at the clip, it showed the entire incident except for the part where the cars came closest together. The clip just jumps to the point after we had passed each other. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

[beachsideev]

Unfortunately yeah. Don't rely on the dashcam to work like you'd expect.

 

[Resist]

The Dashcam has been buggy since its release and Tesla has done nothing to fix it.

 

[dusty22]

In my case, I thought, perhaps the car detected a possible collision and was going to take evasive action and that is what caused a hiccup with Dashcam.

 

[stopcrazypp]

In my case, I thought, perhaps the car detected a possible collision and was going to take evasive action and that is what caused a hiccup with Dashcam.

You may have had the Auto save setting set, in which it may try to save the clip automatically, which may cause it to hiccup an skip a few seconds.
https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/modely/en_eu/GUID-3BCC07CE-5EA2-4F40-99D1-27690898FF3C.html

Pressing to save only a minute after the event in interest may also cause it to hiccup. This has been a long running bug that many people have reported, the saving procedure actually causes the dashcam to fail to save the most critical moment.

If you read up thread, what the "save" feature does actually is just copy the most recent 10 minutes worth of clips that was saved in the one hour loop in the Recent Clips into the Saved Clips folder, but during that process it may miss a few seconds. If you must use the save feature, it is best to do it between 2 to 9 minutes later (each clip is 59 seconds if you put your USB into a computer and look). This lets the car close out any files that it may have been in the process of writing. Given it takes in the most recent 10 minutes, it wouldn't miss the event either if you do it within that time frame.

The other more safe method, is to wait a few minutes, pause the dashcam, and pull the drive (and optionally swap in a spare drive). This would keep the video files from the one hour loop in the drive from being overwritten and also does not run the "save" procedure which seems to be problematic.